


The consequences of sins

by redshadowalchemist



Series: The three sons of Hohenheim [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Human Transmutation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redshadowalchemist/pseuds/redshadowalchemist
Summary: He still had no idea where the boys were. He hadn't seen bodies last time he was here (he tried to ignore the hunch he may have seen an empty set of clothes he thought had belonged to Alphonse), but there had been blood, a lot of blood.Or, after the failed human transmutation Envy, Ed and Al try to come to terms with what's been lost.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Envy, Alphonse Elric & Envy, Edward Elric & Envy, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Envy & Roy Mustang
Series: The three sons of Hohenheim [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891093
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a short multichapter (maybe 3 or 4 chapters long).

Ed and Al's house was in a very similar state to how it had been last time Envy was here, but the blood was gone. Someone had cleaned up most of the evidence, but not the circle itself. Envy had done no more than take Sloth, or the charred carcas that would become Sloth once Dante did her part, he hadn't cared for cleaning up the scene, in his mind Ed and Al made the mess and they could fix it. Had they fixed it? Envy didn't think so surely Ed would have the brains to remove the circle. 

He still had no idea where the boys were. He hadn't seen bodies last time he was here (he tried to ignore the hunch he may have seen an empty set of clothes he thought had belonged to Alphonse), but there had been blood, a lot of blood.

He needed to find out where they were, taking the form of an average, passing pretty young woman to avoid attracting too much attention he wandered around the village in attempt to look inconspicous.

When he passed Rockbell automail he decided to go inquire within, since he had found nothing out of the ordinary anywhere else, shifting so he now wore the handsome face of William Van Hohenheim, he knew that Ed and Al knew the Rockbells well, and if the older woman cared enough to make sure they were fed when they were living alone in that house she might have an idea where the boys were.

“Excuse me, I'm looking for Edward and Alphonse Elric" he tells the woman with his most charming fake smile. 

“I'm afraid they both had an accident. They won't be able to see anyone.” The woman dismissed but Envy blocks the door with his his superior strength as she tries to slam it on him quickly, she is trying to get rid of him, does she know what they did?

“I saw the circle” he tells them "I am assuming you are the one that cleaned the mess up?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" the tiny old lady says, meeting his gaze with a firm determined look she's a lot tougher than she looks.

“I'm not military, I'm William Van Hohenheim, Ed and Al's half brother. What happened to them?"

"Hohenheim never mentioned another son".

"The bastard wouldn't, but how common do you think eyes like mine are? Go and ask them if you are unsure. They know me."

“Winry go and tell them” The Rockbell woman told the little girl, so that was her name Winry. When had she got in here? Damn kids too quiet by half.

"So where have you been?"

"My life is unsafe" Will says "I couldn't take them with me but I've checked on them often. Even when they were in Dublith. Are they hurt?"

"Ed's missing an arm and a leg, he lost a lot of blood but he'll live if he doesn't get a bad infection. Alphonse though...he's lost his body, Ed somehow bound him to a suit of armour."

“Al says they'll see you but...hey wait a minute” Winry cried.

Envy pushed past the little girl into the house.

He doesn't see Alphonse anywhere, Edward is lying in a makeshift hospital bed, a damp cloth over his face. If there are indeed missing limbs he can't tell due to the blankets he's been covered in to keep him warm and reduce the risk of infection.

"Will" he hears Al's voice but it sounds different, hollow almost, and did that suit of armour just move? The old lady had said...how had Ed managed that? It was a brilliant bit of alchemy, tricky even for someone like Hohenheim.

"Al?" he asked.

"It's me" and that is definitely Al's voice.

"What happened to you?"

"We....we tried to bring mom back" he hesitantly admits "but it went wrong. I got sucked through this door, lost my body, Ed gave up his arm to bind my soul to the armour." Gave up his arm, for Alphonse. Alphonse is worth the price.

"He's lost his leg too" Al said "because of what we did, the arm was for me" he sounds almost guilty.

So how can Envy do anything about this? Ed got off very lightly for human transmutations, it's probably painful loosing a limb if you aren't a regenerating homunculus, but limbs can be replaced at least, a painful exhausting process from what little Envy knows of it of but he's not lost his sight, or vital organs.

Yet when Envy looks at him, he looks so small. So fragile, he is, after all only ten years old. Just a child, a powerful, intelligent child but a child nonetheless.

He is torn between extreme anger at his brothers' stupidity and extreme sorrow at their desperate state.

"He won't talk" Al said, "not to me, or Granny Pinako or Winry, when it happened, he told me what he'd done, to get me back then he collapsed, he hasn't spoken since then. I'm worried about him."

Al is kind, of course he is worried about Ed. Al and Ed, their love has always been unconditional, Ed was an idiot but he had given up an arm to save Alphonse, if he'd already lost his leg, he must have been in agony, to be in such pain and to still have the prescence of mind to do that...and to do it successfully. And he's only ten. He's going to be brilliant when he grows up, assuming this doesn't destroy him. He may even be able to help Envy who had known Ed was clever, a prodigy even but not realized just how powerful....he is in equal parts terrified and delighted. He will never have what Ed and Al have, but they love Will, he comes second to each other with them though they would never say it, but they still love him. Do they love him enough to help him? Envy had considered it before but dismissed it, maybe when they were older, maybe when the noticed their supposed half brother didn't age. Maybe, if they weren't destroyed by this, they will be able to help him.

He see's Ed's eyes flicker open but the boy doesn't react. Envy in next to him in a second.

“I saw the circle” he tells the elder of his sort of brothers “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Ed looks straight ahead and says nothing. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mustang arrives, and Edward and Envy have a long overdue chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Envy might seem a bit unpredictable loving one minute, hateful the next. Remember he is a homuncolous and has only vague memories as a reference of human emotion. He has very mixed feelings towards Edward and Alphonse.
> 
> Also I mess around with time lines a bit here. I know Mustang turns up sooner in the anime and manga but I wanted to give Envy more time before the flame alchemist shows up.

Ed doesn't speak for another 10 days, Envy returns every two or three days to check on the boys but Ed doesn't seem to even realize he is there.

Sometimes Envy sits with him quietly, sometimes he rages at him and shouts and screams and calls him every name under the sun to try and get some kind of reaction but there is no indication either positive or negative that Ed is aware he is there. The younger boy is catatonic. The old lady, Pinako says he may eventually return to normal or he never speak again she doesn't know. He doesn't indicate if he is any pain when Envy puts him in the wheelchair, but he must be in pain. No reaction at all when Alphonse wheels him outside to get fresh hair, though the younger boy bound in armor bravely keeps up the chatter albiet one sided.

It is on one of these visits, Envy has given up on Ed for today and is trying to make sure Alphonse is alright, the boy claims he is but that cannot be true, not when he is trapped in the armour. They hear the door open and Pinako calling on someone to wait, Envy tenses, waiting and Alphonse stands up. A man in full military uniform storms in, he is of average height but has a prescence which makes him seem taller, he looks to have some Xingese blood as well, Envy supposes you could call him handsome the man also looks vaguely familiar. He is accompanied by another officer, a woman with short blonde hair who seems a lot less agitated than her colleague.

The male soldier fixes his eyes on Envy, likely assuming he is in charge due to the only other person in the room being a small crippled child (and Alphonse but due to Al's habit of freezing when he is nervous and the fact he is now bound to a suit of armour the officer probably thinks he is a highly questionable interior decoration choice rather than a person) this is not an unreasonable assumption. Until a few days ago it was a questionable choice in decoration, the armour Alphonse is bound to belonged to Hohenheim, who was a tall man but not that tall, why did he even own a seven foot tall suit of armour anyway? Envy made a mental note to ask him before he killed him. 

"I saw your notes" the officer snarls at Envy "what the hell did you do?" state alchemist then, Envy was at Ishval maybe that is why the dark haired man looks familiar. The homunculous is torn for a minute, does he tell the officer the truth? Edward would probably deserve to face the consequences but human transmutation...but that might go all the way up to the Fuhrer, to Pride. What would Pride do if he got his hands on the boys. Envy isn't sure. Dante probably wants them alive, but alive doesn't mean unharmed. As the only adult in the room he could take the fall, and use his own abilities to melt away when the officer looks away for a second. If he lets the state alchemist arrest him he would never see a day inside a cell. 

He notes Pinako in the doorway and the trembling Winry, "it's OK" he mouths at Pinako which she takes to mean he will deal with the soldiers so she can tend to Winry.

"It wasn't him" Edward tells the state alchemist, his voice is raw and rasping from lack of use but for the first time since the failed human transmutation he lifted his head and met someone's eyes, why he couldn't meet the eyes of his loyal little brother or his (sort of) half brother when he could apparently meet the eyes of the strange officer Envy didn't know, but Edward met the officer's eyes and simply said "leave him alone, he's innocent. He didn't know what I planned."

"Are you saying...it was you?" the officer asked "how old are you? 8?"

"11" Ed scowled.

"You let him do this?" 

"Hey, I didn't have anything to do with it. As he said I didn't know what he was planning. I'm their half brother but I'm not their guardian and I never lived with them...complicated family dynamics, it'll take too long to explain. I only came when I realized something was wrong because despite my issues with our father I don't actually want my half brothers to suffer." This was surprisingly, true. 

"Brothers as in plural, so where's the other one?" the officer frowned.

"I'm here" Alphonse speaks lifting his head with the scraping sound of metal on metal Envy has become intimately familiar with these past few days.

"Which one are you? Edward or Alphonse?"

"I'm Alphonse Elric" Al explains.

"I bound him to a suit of armour, but none of this is his fault" Edward says "it was all my idea and if you are going to arrest anyone it better be me. Don't touch him."

"I'm not arresting anyone" the officer says "but if you can survive human transmutation and bind a soul to a suit of armour, I would say you're more than qualified to be a state alchemist."

"Stop" Envy snarls this officer cannot be seriously trying to recruit an eleven year old. Envy knows what happened in Ishval, he was there, he started it after all, and now that he thinks about it he knows where he recognizes this officer from.

"You're the flame alchemist" he says, "Mustang. I saw Ishval...I'm older than I look" he says it isn't a lie though Mustang will assume he is in his twenties looking 18, not that he is over 400 years old.

Pain flashes across the flame alchemist's face. Interesting reaction that, it almost looks like guilt. Hurt flashes across the face of the woman with him too, the silent lieutenant who hasn't said a word herself yet.

"You won't take Ed, you won't make him do anything like that. I won't allow it." Envy continues.

"Will.." Edward started turning to the homuncolous.

"Oh now you're talking to me are you?" Envy snarls, "for nearly two weeks you haven't said anything to me. No indication you hadn't messed up your head as well as your body."

"I'm alright" Ed says but it is a lie.

"No you aren't alright Edward, nothing is ever going to be alright again, but we'll get past this. You will not join them. You aren't a killer, you are a child and it's about damn time you started getting treated like the child you are. I think I'll start by not letting you join the military." He says the last part almost hysterically. Ed can't be serious, he can't think this is a good idea.

"It's too late for that" Ed said with a dark smile that didn't meet his eyes before he turns his head back to Mustang, "but my brother has one good point. Why should I join you? I don't want to kill anyone. I know what soldiers do."

"Because the Amestrian military has a huge collection of research and texts on alchemy, the largest in the country and it can only be accessed by state alchemists. In time you may be able to restore your bodies."

"For Alphonse..." Ed starts he glances at Al for a moment almost seeming to waver as his voice shakes but he seems to get a hold of himself "there's nothing I won't do for my brothers."

Brothers, plural, is Envy included in that? Not that he needs protection from a little brat that can barely protect himself but it is still nice to have someone willing, even if that person can do nothing. 

"I'm no use to anyone stuck in this chair" Edward continues fixing his eyes on the officer "leave your contact details and I'll get back to you once I've had automail surgery and gone through enough rehabilitation for the stuff to actually work."

The flame alchemist seemed impressed by this, he seemed satisfied he had Ed's agreement too, as he didn't hang around much longer.

xxxxxx

"Ed" Envy started again when they were alone "You cannot be serious about joining the military" he'd be under Pride, Pride who follows Dante he may as well hand himself over now. 

"What am I supposed to do then? Look what I did to Alphonse. I have to fix him. I owe him that much it's all my fault, what happened I'm to blame."

"That's not true" Alphonse argues "I could have said something but I didn't. I wanted it to."

"You may have wanted it too but you never would have even thought to try to bring her back if not for me."

Alphonse is smart but Edward is smarter, and Alphonse has usually been largely willing to go along with Edward's schemes trusting his elder brother as he does.

"And why did you suggest it?" Envy snaps "what were you thinking? You haven't told me yet."

“I found the bastard's notes.” Ed said quietly, “I thought I could bring mum back from the dead. After all Hohenheim brought you back....didn't he?” He paused he voice quavering at the last bit "I'm not an idiot, I found his notes, you died and he put your soul in the body of a homunculus. I've seen that mark on your thigh, the mark the notes say all Homunculi have. If it worked for him why didn't it work for us?"

If Envy could cry he could. Edward is a prodigy after all, he was wrong but he had pieced together more than Envy had expected. He could see why Ed would have come to this conclusion. He had called himself ”Will" and worn Will's face after all. Was some of this his fault? For his lies?

He punched the wall. Alphonse winced Ed just stared straight ahead.

Finally Envy calms himself down enough to explain, he will have to explain. He cannot have the boys thinking it is possible and trying again.

“No Edward, he failed, you did have a half brother, William. He died of mercury poisoning aged 18. Hohenheim tried to bring him back. Instead he brought me forward from the gate. I have the same body as William did, I even have his memories but I'm not him. In personality we are different. I am not really your half brother I'm not even human,, I'm a homunculus but there is nothing of William's soul in me, homunculi don't have souls.”

Edward is silent for a while he closed his eyes, then he opens them again and there is no fear in them rather relief.

“So I didn't get it wrong? It didn't work because it's impossible not because I messed up?” He almost seems to hope this is the case.

“You cannot create a human soul. Homunculi have no soul. I have no soul.”

“But you can create a body?” Edward asks again seemingly ignoring the bit abut the man he thought of as his older brother being an artifically created souless creature.

Envy nods.

“So I can fix Alphonse? Get his body back. The gate took him, and my leg. I gave my arm to get his soul back, I bound him to the nearest thing I could find that old suit of armour. I saved his soul so surely I could create a body...”

“The price would be a high one, you might even die.”

“I don't care this is my fault if I have to die to fix him I will.” Ed shouts.

“No” Al yells back, Envy has never heard Alphonse yell before “I'd rather be stuck like this forever than lose you.”

Envy wonders if he should change his name to Wrath, he is furious. As the enormity of what has happened to Alphonse hits him. He can't eat, can't sleep, all he can do it exist. His sweet gentle brother trapped like that possibly forever. He had already known this intellectually but for the first time what it truly means hits him.

The sweet boy, his youngest brother's life has been destroyed because of Edward's arrogance. Al always reminded him of the real William, another sweet boy whose life was destroyed by another's arrogance and he wants to hurt Ed.

One of Envy's hands grabs Ed by the collar of his shirt and pulls him up. He's so light and what remains of his left leg is bandaged up, his arm would have been ripped off with such force his shoulder blade was ripped out too. Ed winces but doesn't scream. Despite the extreme pain he must be in even without his kind of half brother jerking him around. There is acceptance in his eyes. Despite the fact its clear Envy's going to hit him.

“Go on” he says, part challenge and part request as defiant anger and guilt war behind the younger boy's eyes.

Envy crumbles he puts Ed back down on the bed. He hugs him tightly. Ed doesn't hug him back, he's too exhausted to do so but he leans in against Envy's touch.

"What am I going to do with you two?" Envy sighed. There is only one course of action that makes sense, Ed and Al are smart enough they can put things together, they need accurate information, he'd rather not give it to them, let them keep that innocence, but that ship has long sailed. And what other mistakes might they make because they are missing vital information he can provide.

So he tells them everything about Hohenheim and Dante, their immortality, the stones, the other Homunculi, their true names, about the Fuhrer being Pride, about Sloth. He tries to make them understand she isn't Trisha Elric.

"Then why do you call yourself William?" Ed asked suddenly interrupting at this point.

"I had to explain my prescence, being William was simpler to explain than being a homunculus. I'm nothing like him, I have his memories that's all. Sloth will not be your mother, she has her memories but she's a different creature a soulless shell whose affection for you is related to memories only. Sloth won't be like me, William had no memories of you, you never met him, he died long before you were born."

"Which means" Alphonse interrupts thoughtfully, "you are genuine, our relationship is genuine as it isn't based on the memories of someone else. We never met William. So you aren't reacting to his memories which means how you treated us is your choice alone."

"I liked seeing you, I never had brothers before. Or any real friends" Envy admits "but I'm not William. I don't like pretending to be him."

"Do you want us to call you Envy?" Ed asked.

"I don't really want to be him either" Envy admits for the first time.

"So pick a different name" Ed says as if it is simple and really it is, why shouldn't he pick another name?

"We'll worry about that later" Envy says "you need to rest" Edward looks exhausted but he is trying to hide it, his skin is pale and clammy though, he got off lightly considering what he did, but that is only comparitively, he's 11 and had two of his limbs ripped off, while he seems to be healing, he must still be in a lot of pain, and he's proposing undergoing automail surgery as well.

Ed protests but he does lie back down and Envy tucks him into bed.

"Will you come back?" Alphonse asks as Envy turns to leave.

"Do you want me to? I told you I'm not your brother."

"You might not be William Van Hohenheim but you are our brother. You've been our brother for years, I don't see why it should change."

Envy does come back again the next day, this time though he drops the William act as soon as the old lady leaves them alone. It is a test, to see if he can truly trust their sincerity that it doesn't matter, he takes the purple eyed, green haired more androdynous form he usually favours. The form that feels as close to "right" as anything ever will.

Alphonse doesn't react at all to the change and all Ed does is ask a hundred questions very fast, ever the scientist even now. For them he supposes this indicates acceptance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, Ed gets his automail and Envy visits central and Pride.


End file.
